With the launch this fall of portable e-books, we are witnessing a dual phenomenon: the conversion of large numbers of books to digital form and the distribution of convenient hand held readers with a variety of applications. Both have significant implications for the way we work and for our leisure reading.

Books are the third wave of electronic publishing. First, indexes from secondary publishers became searchable databases via Dialog in the 70's and on CD-ROMs in the 80's. When the web became popular, primary journals began converting to PDF formats for local printing or an SGML format that enables users to hot link to other references.

Now books, those cherished paper editions to which we are so attached, are about to be converted in large numbers. Research shows that there is a correlation between human learning and the physical format of the printed page. Users typically print long documents to read off-line since the standard print page does not fit comfortably on the average screen and scrolling is awkward.

Designers of these new e-books realize that they have to provide readers with a comfortable experience by offering a vertical (portrait rather than landscape) view and allowing users to "page" (or click) through the book. Additional features and functionality enable the user to select a larger type size and to access a dictionary online. New versions are lightweight with backlit screens which can be read in low light. They hold from 10-500 books which can be easily downloaded, marked and retrieved.

Standards

One of the hurdles for this fledgling industry is the creation of format and transmission standards that enable users to download a book to read on any device. This was a common theme at the recent National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conference in Gaithersburg, Maryland. While much of the book world was gathered in Frankfurt discussing print products, NIST quietly hosted Electronic Book '98. Committed to stimulating the US economy by promoting standards for developing technologies, NIST played a role by bringing together 300 researchers, businessmen and librarians to discuss hardware, software, content and marketing issues for this emerging industry.

During the conference Microsoft announced that it is joining major publishing and technology companies, including Simon & Schuster, Random House and Time Warner to establish technical standards as part of the Open e-Book Standard Group. This should allow for the establishment of standards similar to those that supported the introduction of CDs and DVDs. No one wants to experience the complications which occurred when VHS went head to head with Betamax.

The Markets

There is a financial incentive for publishers to participate as their profits are squeezed by higher returns and distribution costs which consume 50% of the price of a trade book. Although Amazon.com markets and sells books over the web, they still ship print versions. E-commerce of digital formats of books could create new channels for distribution and new economic models resulting in the availability of out-of-print titles. The current US book market is $21 billion, with 25% in textbooks and 10% sold to libraries.

The more sophisticated devices are targeting the higher end markets, i.e. medical, legal and professional where information must be current and is unwieldy in print form due to the sheer size of the bound volumes. Accessibility is expected to be an attractive feature to auditors with the "Big 5" accounting firms who need current updates from the Financial Standards Board (FASB). Students enrolled in distance learning programs who need course packs of material can have an entire semester's reading downloaded to their e-books.

In addition to commercially published material, corporations can convert their product information and proprietary technical publications to a secure server so that remote employees (such as maintenance engineers in the field) can have the most current data. Large legal contracts can be converted and easily stored for review.

At the end of the day, the user who wants leisure reading in addition to news and professional journals can combine them in one lightweight, portable format. Major publishers are teaming up with the producers of these hand held devices to include best sellers and popular reading as part of the initial offerings.

The E-Book Technology

The new devices being introduced appear to be an enlarged version of portable digital assistants (PDAs) and have limited and specific functionality due in part to piracy concerns of the publishers. Their capabilities vary based on the market they target and the distribution model the producers have adopted.

NuvoMedia in Palo Alto, CA was the first to officially launch their e-book in the U.S. at a Barnes and Noble in NYC in October. The Rocket e-Book is a paperback size device, which holds 10 books (4,000 pages), has a 4x3" screen, a 20 hour battery, weighs 1 ½ pounds and costs $500. To insure popular content for the professional and consumer markets, they have partnered with Bertelsmann's Random House, Dow Jones' Wall Street Journal, News Corp.'s Harper Collins and Pearson PLC's Penguin Putnam among others. Content is in an HTML format, loads via a computer modem and can be viewed only on the Rocker e-Book for which it was purchased.

SoftBook Press of Menlo Park, California, will introduce their e-book by year end. SoftBook has a leather cover, holds 250 books (100,000 pages), has a 7x6" screen, a 5 hour battery, weighs nearly 3 pounds and costs $600 (introductory price of $300 + $20/month in books for 24 months). SoftBook has developed partnerships with Simon & Schuster and Time for content. They also offer a Toolkit for corporations that wish to convert internal corporate information to a secure site for easy access by their remote users. Content is loaded in an HTML based proprietary format and downloaded directly to the SoftBook via an internal modem.

Everybook of Middletown, Pennsylvania, will introduce their e-book in the first quarter of 1999. The EB reader has two facing pages, holds 1,000 books (500,000 pages), has two 8x10" color screens, a 5 hour battery, weighs less than 4 pounds and is being introduced to the professional market for $1,500. They cite numerous government agencies who use PDF. Content is loaded in PDF format onto a removable disk cartridge via an internal modem.

Librius, Inc. of Bellevue, Washington, will introduce their e-book prior to the end of 1998. The Millennium Reader holds 10 books, is paperback size, has an 18 hour battery, weighs about 1 pound and costs $200. The consumer market is the initial focus of Librius, which has 4,000 titles and is targeting the mass market, beginning with romance novels distributed through bookstores and supermarkets. Content is converted from HTML to a proprietary format and downloaded to a pc and then directly to the reader for viewing.

The introductory models of e-books offer the convenience of carrying multiple titles, reading them in larger type on a screen, under any lighting conditions and marking passages. Future versions of e-books will be in color, able to handle multimedia and have larger storage capacity.

The Future

To be successful in the consumer market, e-book creators plan to offer 10,000 titles attractive to a wide audience. They are negotiating with publishers to rapidly convert books to support their offerings in their online libraries. While the Rocket e-Book loads to a PC through a bookstore, SoftBook loads directly from their site to the device, eliminating the bookstore as the middleman. As standards are adopted commercial publishers' content will be available from a variety of sources for use on any device.

If the e-book is slow to be adopted by the mass market, there is tremendous potential to use it as an efficient reading device to securely deliver proprietary data for remote users. Corporations involved in making information available globally to their staff, will find the enhanced distribution features attractive. The convergence of document imaging and retrieval within companies and the emphasis on knowledge management will determine new applications for this technology.

Software in development at Fuji/Xerox will allow the user to annotate passages from stored documents and then search and retrieve the marked portions, linking back to the full document. Being able to easily find what was read will have high value to everyone suffering from information overload.

Eventually users will want the option of viewing material on their PCs and then using the hand held device as an enhanced portable document assistant (PDA). Ideally it would be great for users to have complete interoperability between their desktop PC and a lightweight portable device that handles notebook functions (email, presentations, reading and word/excel functions) and serves as a reader. What if you could detach the screen of your notebook PC and use it as a reader?

The pieces are all there - the technology, the content, the web savvy user. How they come together will be determined by the users' comfort level and ability to better manage their reading.

Sidebar

Electronic Book '98

NIST succeeded in bringing together the key players within this emerging industry to address factors related to the success of the e-book. During the conference attendees heard from the four producers of hand held readers that will be introduced in the next few months. One of the most salient points was made by Chris Pooley, CEO of Modern Age Books, whose company has been producing electronic books and manuals on CD-ROMs for use with PCs. Pointing to the success of the Palm Pilot which leverages the large installed base of PC users, he noted that integration with existing systems would be a key factor.

The litmus test came on day two when only two of the nine panelists acknowledged that they would buy the current edition of the e-book. They all embraced the potential and were excited about future developments that would permit integration of the display devices with existing hardware. E-books will be more widely adopted when users can access the content on their existing machines and integrate the new hand held devices with their existing workflow.